International Women’s Day 2016 – Women of the World

This is a love letter to Dame Travelers – to all the women out there who are doing wonderful things, and to those who are still struggling to have their voices heard.

Today, March 8th, marks International Women’s Day – a day that celebrates the achievements and progress of women around the world, and acknowledges that we still have so. far. to go. in terms of education, violence, discrimination, and, ultimately, equality.

As Dame Travelers, we are ambassadors. Ambassadors of gender equality, of modern feminism, of self-discovery, of “yes, girls can do that”.

And so, in the spirit of girl power, we’ve put together our first-ever digital magazine that features stories of struggle, strength, and triumph of women around the world. Some of the tales are light and charming, while others are heartbreaking to read — because both sides show the real world for women today, on all ends of the spectrum.

Meet Mahsa – this digital nomad can only be described as one fierce female. Most of us would assume that a motorcycle accident that left you with two broken legs and wheelchair-bound would destroy any chances of you ever again wanting to climb atop a bike. But for Mahsa Homayounfar, an Urban Adventures partner operating in Seville, Spain, it made her want to hop back on and explore even more. With two wheels, she’s tackled regions in South America, West Africa, and the Middle East that are challenging for anyone, let alone a solo female traveller.

Meet Nikki – this Urban Adventures’ guide in New York City is one of the best in the brand, having won this year’s award for Guide of the Year. She’s also an avid solo traveller who believes the best experiences are found beyond your comfort zone, and that as a woman, there’s a modern-feminist joy in letting yourself run away from time to time, whether it’s to Italy or Israel.

Meet Olga – this young entrepreneur runs two tourism businesses despite not having a background in the tourism industry. But she likes it that way, it allows her to view travel from the traveller’s perspective. Her business ideas first formed when she was a university student on an international internship program. After spending some time in China and the Balkans, she realised the stereotypes and curiosities people have about her homeland. And from there, a business idea was born.

Read more on how Olga employs the female business mind to be taken seriously…

Meet Cecilia – this solo travel addict says the best rewards have been the people she’s met. When she’s not running the Urban Adventures brand in Venice, Italy, Cecilia is wandering the world, and making friends. She’s travelled solo to destinations such as Mexico, Morocco, Turkey, Brazil, and Jordan. In Vietnam, she met Israeli travellers who approached her specifically because she was alone; they ended up sharing a taxi that day and stayed friends who still visit one another. But she also points out that the things you learn about yourself when you travel solo is the most valuable souvenir.

The Seven Women of Kathmandu – Our taxi pulls up outside some rusty wrought iron gates. Inside is one of Nepal’s philanthropic success stories: a tiny business that’s slowly changing the lives of local women. It’s called Seven Women, and it began in 2006 as a grassroots project to help (literally) seven women who were suffering discrimination as a result of their disabilities. Nine years later, the project has expanded big time, with two centres in Kathmandu and four more in outlying villages. This is the largest, a three-storey building lost in the warren of Kathmandu’s slightly crumbling backstreets. In the 80s and 90s this was all green fields. Now it’s a maze of houses and apartments — tall, whitewashed structures, their paint peeling around the edges.

Read more about the Seven Women and the women’s rights movement in Nepal…

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is gender disparity. The World Economic Forum has predicted the global gender pay gap won’t close until 2133 — that’s right, it’ll be 117 years before women and men make equal pay.

And this isn’t something happening far away. In countries such as Australia, the U.K, the U.S., and Canada, women make roughly 74 cents for every dollar that a man makes.

That’s why, for our own #PledgeforParity, this week we’re changing our tour prices to reflect the rate of that ugly gender pay gap.

For the week of March 8th, our tours are marked down 26% when you use the code GIRLPOWER, to represent that gaping hole in wage equality.

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Nastasia, originally a Labor & Delivery nurse turned travel blogger, has leveraged her passion for travel, photography and has founded Dame Traveler, a curated women’s travel blog where solo female travelers can inspire, and connect with, one another. Her eye for stunning travel visuals has helped build a large Instagram following, with close to 440,000 followers on @dametraveler and 100,000 on her personal account, @nastasiaspassport, in addition to a large network of travel bloggers. Her hard work has led her to be featured in publications such as Travel & Leisure, Fodor’s, Vogue and more.
55+ countries into her journey, her passion for the world has led her to create a sizeable community of female travelers where her mission is to empower them to travel more, do more and be more. Whether sipping on chai in Istanbul or volunteering abroad in South Africa, Nastasia continues to find and share the beauty of this world, thus inspiring people to change the way they see and experience life.